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Jonas had a t-ball game this morning, and all three boys enjoyed themselves. Xander had a BLAST transferring pine straw mulch from one shrub to another with the little sister of one of Jonas’ teammates who was his age…it was so super cute to watch them work together on their project…here’s a picture of their creation. Roman was a wild man…pretty much all over the place, checking things out…trying to climb up the fence and onto the bleachers and other people’s camp chairs. And Jonas played against his best little buddy, Tucker, from preschool (who changed schools this winter), so it was adorable to see them together again…here’s a picture of them, relaxing on the bleachers, after the game.

Thanks to Seyfrieds.com, you all get to see our sweet boys growing up. But what you don’t see is all the hard work Jodi Seyfried does to make it happen. As you already know, Jodi keeps the boys very busy. Between the library, the zoo, arts and crafts at home, playground playdates, birthday parties, school, doctors visits, and about fifty other activities, Jodi works extremely hard to keep three boys active and not beating on each other. All three boys are so smart and always thinking outside the box. I credit this to Jodi forever keeping them engaged and not just sitting around all day playing video games. Then there is this website. Jodi is always finding a few minutes here, or a few minutes there, to update the website with a post about what the boys are doing. I am very blessed to have married such a hard working woman, and the boys are blessed to have a momma that cares so much about every day. And, she’s not bad to look at either. 

Here’s Xander in the dinosaur hoodie I made him for Christmas!

The boys and I have been taking it SUPER easy since the holidays, resting up from an event heavy season. So, I thought I would bust out a fun activity idea this morning (yes, I saw it on Pinterest)… Indoor Counting Croquet…perfect for a rainy day. Jonas was all about writing the numbers himself (he used the Little Writer tracing app when he got stuck on the how-to), Xander had just as much fun stomping on the construction paper hoops as he did hitting the ball through them, and Roman mostly enjoyed just trying to eat the masking tape. Ha!

Uncle Darren, Cousin Marina, Aunt Julie, and Cousin Dylan stopped by for a quick visit this afternoon while the big boys were napping..I kind of fell down on the picture taking front while they were here but I did snap a few of Darren and Marina with Roman after he woke up from his nap.

Uncle Darren and Cousin Marina came over for a visit today. We ate a yummy lunch (grilled cheese and chili mac) together; I put all three boys down for their afternoon nap; and we caught up over warm drinks, chocolate chip cookies, and a fun game of Apples to Apples. Jonas and Roman woke up in time to see the beautiful snow falling and were both totally captivated…they couldn’t wait to get out in it and that we did. I look forward to taking Xander out tomorrow too (he took a super long nap today and missed our little outing). We’re all hoping for more snow (especially Jonas…he really wants to throw snow balls and make snow angels and a snow man…haha).

Tom was cleaning out the garage this morning and opened up a box of my old keepsakes…I was SO excited to see my old Tyco train set, Magical Musical Thing, and two of my favorite childhood books (with what looks like hand-stitched spines)…and the boys were too!!! They don’t make them like they used to…

The boys and I had so much fun decorating gingerbread houses with MeMe this morning!!! Jonas was sneaking one too many licks of icing, trying to tell MeMe what to do as she was working hard to keep the roof from sliding down every few minutes (a cookie manufacturing issue), and being very particular about the way he wanted to decorate. Xander was sampling candy right and left (especially the sparkly gumdrops and the “little baby” hard candies), enjoying his decorating freedom, and, in general, was more into eating candy than decorating with it. It got a little crazy after Roman woke up from his nap when Xander spilled a bowl full of the “little baby” hard candies all over the kitchen floor. As we were scurrying around trying to pick them all up so that Roman wouldn’t have a hundred choking hazards to try out his pincer grasp on, I saw Xander’s finger go up his nose. Everything kind of went in slow motion for me then, as it suddenly dawned on me after I told him to take his finger out of his nose what he had done…yep, you guessed it, he stuck one of those “little baby” hard candies UP HIS NOSE!!! Unbelievable. Sheri was so sweet and calming and helped him try to blow his nose while I ran upstairs to get the tweezers. I ended up taking her good advice in lieu of tweezering for any longer than a half a second and called the pediatrician. The nurse and I had a good laugh, MeMe graciously offered to stay home with Jonas and Roman, and Xander and I zipped off to the pediatrician’s office to see if Dr. Huss could get it out. By then it had disappeared and our attempts at getting the offending object out failed, so we just decided that it would probably dissolve on its own (he said if it didn’t and it got infected that we’d have to take him to the ENT to get it out…but hopefully it won’t come to that). Ah life. It really was pretty funny. Happy Ho Ho Ho to you!!!

Jonas is really into dressing up like a super hero these days (he likes to be Super Why…the hero on the modern day Reading Rainbow)…here he is in his super jammies, super socks, super cape, and super goggles.

Xander has such a servant’s heart (I think his love language is acts of service). Before he went down for his nap today, he set about picking up all of the clothes I had piled up next to the washer and put them in the dryer (I hadn’t washed them yet but I still totally let him do it and gave him a big hug and kiss…what a sweet boy, helping his mommy).

Here’s to the best $5 I’ve ever spent…

We started a tradition not too many years ago where the newest family addition puts the star on the Christmas tree, so this year it was Roman’s turn. (Of course, his big brothers wanted to get in on the action too.)

In his thirty-ninth week, Roman is: continuing to rip off his bib at mealtimes (he’s been doing this for a while now, and it totally wears me out…I finally got him a bib with a stretchy collar for toddlers); putting the turbo on when he crawls; pulling up on and cruising around anything and everything; climbing the stairs (all the way to the top with Daddy right behind him…God help us); and proving to be every bit the explorer that his brothers were at his age (and still are).

We decorated for Christmas this weekend…it’s always interesting (and a bit frustrating) decorating for anything with preschoolers, toddlers, and babies…but (in hindsight) it really is more fun with kids. HaHa!!!

We have a new addition this year…a little Christmas tree in our play room. Tom bought some shatterproof ornaments, I strung them with sparkly ribbon, and the boys had a BLAST decorating the tree all on their own.

It ended up just being Jonas in the end…he sorted the ornaments by color and texture (that’s my son…haha) and clustered them all together. The perfectionist in me, who motherhood has been chiseling away at for the past four years, had passing thoughts of rearranging them BUT decided against it. I’m trying to learn how to let things go and let other people’s perfect (including that of my children) be perfect. I asked Jonas if he wanted to pick out a few handmade blankets from our closet to wrap around the bottom of the tree, and he went directly to his room and brought back one of his favorite “cozes” (that he used to sleep with as a baby and now uses as a “cape” when he’s playing). It made me think of Linus and A Charlie Brown Christmas and about made me pucker up and cry. What a sweet boy…he ended up choosing two blankets that Aunt Teresa made for Xander and him to grace the bottom of the tree. And it looks beautiful!!!

At thirty-eight weeks, Roman is: saying “bath”; starting to cruise; continuing to be the happiest little baby with a smile always at the ready; sniffing through his crinkled nose when he’s particularly excited about something; enjoying getting into his favorite things…the wipes container and the toy shopping cart with all of the play food (he likes the chicken leg and the ice cream cone the best); taking a bath in the big boy tub (he started crawling out of and trying to pull up in the other one); and providing the background music to all of our meals with his contented humming.

I was SO excited to take Jonas and Xander to the library after nap time today, so Jonas could read to Lily. (When I told him what we were going to do, he jumped into my arms and said, “I love you!!!” He was singing, “Jonas loves everything!!!” the whole way there. HaHa. I love that we get excited about the same things.)
Lily is a READing Paws dog, and she loves to listen as children read stories to her. Jonas was a little shy at first and wanted me to sit next to him, but once he started reading he was just fine and seemed to enjoy it just as much as Xander, Lily, and I did. I can’t wait to take them back and make it a regular thing.

When we pulled up to the library this afternoon, Jonas and Xander couldn’t wait to get out of the van and check out the giant Christmas tree. Jonas said, “Mommy, we need to get one of these for our yard!”

Jonas, Roman, and I had so much fun at Cousin Annabella’s birthday party this afternoon (Tom enjoyed some quiet time at home while Xander napped). It was so cute to see all of the kids playing together….the girls running around, being girls in Annabella’s room and the boys running around, being boys in Val’s room. I always love spending time with my dear cousin, Heather, and her precious children (it’s hard to believe they’ve gotten so big…I remember when Val was Roman’s age…twirling his little hands and feet in excitement in the high chair over yummy food at the dinner table…it’s crazy really). Aunt Heather put together the CUTEST painting activity for the kids…they had a blast with it. (I can’t wait to frame the one Jonas made, and have Xander make one too that I can frame for their room.)